@Teamhood yeah it should play back everything fine. It played back all my media fine before I returned it to amazon. The overall idea was great and I really liked the remote, but the software just isn't there yet.

 

I had too many freezes while playing movies. Suddenly dropping my network connection etc. I've been using XBMC and Plex for years now and it just felt like a huge step backwards in reliability and interface.

 

I used a Zotac ION to stream media and it was rock solid. Now I use a few Mac Mini's and I couldn't be happier.

 

Can Mac Mini's stream 1080p bluray? I'm looking for something that cost less than a Mac Mini solution and I was hoping that Boxee Box would be that device. The things that I care about is chapters and menus for ISO or Folder structure for DVD, Bluray, and MKV.

 

My PS3 does an ok job, but no chapters is just so ghetto! I know Dune can do it, but @ $400 it's out of my range.

Like Joe I have a Revo 1600.....if your patient then there is still at least 1 Acer authorized dealer that gets refurbs in

I know cause I picked a couple of them up a month and a half or so ago

 

got them for $170 a piece.....bought a Rii mini remote which is about the size of a cheap dvd player remote.....but has a trackpad abd a back lit keyboard is rechargeable and communicates through RF.....so for a little over $200 I have a XBMC box that does everything I want it to do

 

to have more of a set top feel I loaded the Live version....which runs on a stripped down linux distro....about the only thing it doesn't have an app for is Netflix because Netflix uses Silverlight and thats a negative with Linux

but with a post from their forum I was able to get Firefox added so either through apps or through firefox I can access anything from the web

 

I don't want to hate on Boxee but that total silent switch around definitely made me happy I decided on XBMC even before their box was released

the funny thing about that is they made a switch to make internet content more important....maybe from pressure from the other retail boxes......BUT DO PEOPLE REALLY THINK THAT INTERNET CONTENT IS THAT GOOD

do people really think that Netflix quality is the norm.....it is as far from it as can be and that won't be changing anytime soon.....hell very few website are optimized to be displayed on our tv

 

once i figured this out myself then it became obvious that the best thing is and has been to go with something that handled your local media the best....and nothing....NOTHING does that better than XBMC

but if I want to watch the crappy streams the content providers provide to try and appease then I have an app to do it

with most skins your can tweak things and mainly take things away to make it more with a WAF

 

ok back on Boxee....lol

it was always touted as going to be open....because well it should be considering its built on XBMC...but the switch they silently did with their UI is a prime example.....they now have to make changes to give you the option to make your local media more the forefront .....again they have to make changes to give you this freedom.....and with them trying to get deals with the big boys in content land....with Google and their money not being able to do it at this point is Boxee going to be able to do it....uh no....and if they do how "open" do you think they will be able to be...although they aren't now anyway...lol

 

and its not just Boxee either......Not that the other options aren't good devices either

but if you want a set top box that just plays stuff and just gives you a plain ass UI and no control then why even spend anymore money

 

I would imagine most of us have a xbox or ps3.....I used to use my 360 with the free version of tversity loaded on one of my pc's and streamed stuff constantly.....and they do pretty much have deals with all the big boys

...

I'm not sure whether to build my own or buy a HTPC tbh.

 

Buy dont build for a few reasons:

 

quieter

smaller

the more people that haev your exact hardware the less bugs you will face

 

...

I think my wife will have no issues with XMBC, these things have to be family friendly!!

 

its all about the remote and library mode. XBMC GUI is tested with WAF daily all over the world and passes.

 

 

XBMC on say a Revo all the way. Open Source all the way.

Yeah the Mini handles them fine. Plex and XBMC are very similar (Plex started as a fork of XBMC) and when using the same skins are virtually impossible to tell apart. What I really like about Plex is it's library management. It deals with the scraping and organizing, serves multiple devices including my iPhone and iPad all in one pretty little interface. In the future (early 2011) LG Blu-Ray players and TV's will be able to watch media using Plex as well.

 

I actually have my Zotac now running as a Hackintosh with a Plex front end and it's playing fine. However for simplicity sake I would go XBMC on an Atom Ion box (revo, zbox... etc)

I, too, wanted a Boxee Box so bad...I thought it might be the answer to my prayers. Alas, it isn't, and I think I might return it and build an HTPC with xbmc.

@DoeBoye, it seems you're running a live version of xbmc, is that so, and is that better than doing it through Windows7 ?

I, too, wanted a Boxee Box so bad...I thought it might be the answer to my prayers. Alas, it isn't, and I think I might return it and build an HTPC with xbmc.

@DoeBoye, it seems you're running a live version of xbmc, is that so, and is that better than doing it through Windows7 ?

 

Running a live version gives a more appliance like feel to the whole experience.

 

I run Openelec on my JetWay MiniTop and it works pretty well.  I need to look into some custom key setups on my remote but other than that it was pretty much install and start.

I'm still sitting on the fence as well - not in any real hurry. I am currently using my Tivo to access my unraid movies.  While the interface is lacking, the great Tivo feature is that the movie transfers to the Tivo's internal harddrive for playback.

 

I am leaning towards the PCH C-200 for 2 reasons. 1) I'm quite the unraid newb and Tom has laid out the instructions and 2) I really like Neilt0's setup posted previously in this thread.

 

My question concerning the PCH C-200, if I add an internal drive, can I transfer a movie to the internal drive similar to the way the Tivo works?

 

I'm not sure what you're question is about transferring movies? You can FTP or copy movies over Samba to an internal drive on the C-200. I have 3 internal drives on my C-200 (2x 2.5" + 1x 3.5" hot-swappable).

 

EDIT: And you don't need to transfer the movie, just stream it from your unRAID server.

 

I would recommend the C-200 now, with the current firmware. For me (playing just Blu-ray rips) it "just works". It's a really excellent Blu-ray player.

PIP audio still doesn't work, but I think that's the only thing missing right now.

 

I wouldn't have said that a few months ago, when the firmware was not nearly as complete as it is now.

 

When I select a movie to watch from my Tivo, it begins to transfer the file onto tivo's internal drive for playback.  I don't believe you can just stream the movie through the tivo. I was just curious if similarly on the C-200 you could select a movie on the unraid server to transfer to the c-200 harddrive.

 

It doesn't do that, because you don't need to do it. You just stream. Copying the movie to the hard drive would be pointless.

I use XBMC Live on a zotac mini-itx ion motherboard with an atom, and this board uses a laptop adapter so no atx PSU

 

Just curious...are you using the PicoPsu or something else?

 

As has been said many times in this thread, XBMC Live is the way to go.

 

Just curious...are you using the PicoPsu or something else?

 

As has been said many times in this thread, XBMC Live is the way to go.

 

hey i'm using this motherboard http://www.zotacusa.com/zotac-ionitx-a-u-atom-n330-1-6ghz-dual-core-mini-itx-intel-motherboard.html

 

this set contains also laptop adapter(psu) its rated 90 watt max. this adapter goes directly in to the back of the motherboard.

Interesting, thanks.

I just bought 2 WD TV Live's, as the price has just about halved here in Aus. 

 

Anyway, if anybody is thinking of these, it's worth noting that when streaming from unraid, or similar, your cover-art will show up twice within the video section of the GUI.

 

EG: On my unraid box I have the following directory

 

Movies-DVD > movie1.vob - movie1.jpg

                > movie2.vob - movie2.jpg

                > movie3.vob - movie3.jpg

 

etc etc, basically 1 movie file and one cover-art file associated with that movie, streaming to my ps3 it works a treat, click on the cover-art, the movie plays.

 

On the Live, you get 2 jpg(cover-art) files showing for the one movie, one is how it should be, like the ps3 does it, and the other is just the jpg again.

 

It's very annoying and from what I've read, WD says this is a 'feature', lol. So don't think it will be sorted any time soon.

 

If anyone knows of a fix, by all means let me know, otherwise i think I'll take them back, basically means double the scrolling when going through trying to decide on what to watch, and guessing which is the movie and which is just the jpg.

 

Hope this helps some decide on which to get,

 

PS: if you plug a USB HDD straight into the Live, it works as you would expect, 1 cover-art file associated with the movie file, click on it and the movie plays.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                 

 

EG: On my unraid box I have the following directory

 

Movies-DVD > movie1.vob - movie1.jpg

                 > movie2.vob - movie2.jpg

                 > movie3.vob - movie3.jpg

 

etc etc, basically 1 movie file and one cover-art file associated with that movie, streaming to my ps3 it works a treat, click on the cover-art, the movie plays.

 

On the Live, you get 2 jpg(cover-art) files showing for the one movie, one is how it should be, like the ps3 does it, and the other is just the jpg again.

 

It's very annoying and from what I've read, WD says this is a 'feature', lol. So don't think it will be sorted any time soon.

 

If anyone knows of a fix, by all means let me know, otherwise i think I'll take them back, basically means double the scrolling when going through trying to decide on what to watch, and guessing which is the movie and which is just the jpg.

     

 

I have one as well. You can add a folder for each movie on your unRAID.  This helps the scrolling....just annoying to open the folder and find up to 3 files. Another modification to break up the scrolling is to add genres.

 

Set up your directory as follows (using your structure)

Movies-DVD-Movie1 > movie1.vob - movie1.jpg

                -Movie2 > movie2.vob - movie2.jpg

                -Movie3 > movie3.vob - movie3.jpg

 

For reference I have my directory as follows:

 

Movies-Genre-Movie1 >movie1.mkv-movie1.jpg-folder.jpg

 

EG: On my unraid box I have the following directory

 

Movies-DVD > movie1.vob - movie1.jpg

                 > movie2.vob - movie2.jpg

                 > movie3.vob - movie3.jpg

 

etc etc, basically 1 movie file and one cover-art file associated with that movie, streaming to my ps3 it works a treat, click on the cover-art, the movie plays.

 

On the Live, you get 2 jpg(cover-art) files showing for the one movie, one is how it should be, like the ps3 does it, and the other is just the jpg again.

 

It's very annoying and from what I've read, WD says this is a 'feature', lol. So don't think it will be sorted any time soon.

 

If anyone knows of a fix, by all means let me know, otherwise i think I'll take them back, basically means double the scrolling when going through trying to decide on what to watch, and guessing which is the movie and which is just the jpg.

     

 

I have one as well. You can add a folder for each movie on your unRAID.  This helps the scrolling....just annoying to open the folder and find up to 3 files. Another modification to break up the scrolling is to add genres.

 

Set up your directory as follows (using your structure)

Movies-DVD-Movie1 > movie1.vob - movie1.jpg

                -Movie2 > movie2.vob - movie2.jpg

                -Movie3 > movie3.vob - movie3.jpg

 

For reference I have my directory as follows:

 

Movies-Genre-Movie1 >movie1.mkv-movie1.jpg-folder.jpg

 

Yeah that is an option, however then that would mean on the ps3(which is connected to our main TV, the WDTV's are for main/spare bedrooms)  the cover-art would be inside each movie folder and not visible unless you go into each individual folder, which is how I had it when I first set up my Unraid, thats annoying too!

 

They dont make it easy do they?

I, too, wanted a Boxee Box so bad...I thought it might be the answer to my prayers. Alas, it isn't, and I think I might return it and build an HTPC with xbmc.

@DoeBoye, it seems you're running a live version of xbmc, is that so, and is that better than doing it through Windows7 ?

 

Running a live version gives a more appliance like feel to the whole experience.

 

I run Openelec on my JetWay MiniTop and it works pretty well.  I need to look into some custom key setups on my remote but other than that it was pretty much install and start.

That's exactly what I'm looking for - I like to tinker, but once set up, I want the thing to be a "press a button on the remote and the thing just works" kinda thing...is that the case once you're up and running?

Yeah that is an option, however then that would mean on the ps3(which is connected to our main TV, the WDTV's are for main/spare bedrooms)  the cover-art would be inside each movie folder and not visible unless you go into each individual folder, which is how I had it when I first set up my Unraid, thats annoying too!

 

They dont make it easy do they?

 

Not at all.  One of the first things everyone asks when they see my setup.  Not the cool unRAID server, not the Syno NAS, or how do you do that...it is "why do jpg show up under video?

 

Seems like such a simple filter/programming fix.

 

It does look like PS3 Media Server supports folder.jpg....LOL!- see I found the ps3 Media Server thread you posted in. And then I remember the DLNA limitation and not showing covers.  My folder.jpg show up from my unRAID because I'm using SMB shares, if I use the Synology media server. No folder coverart.

That's exactly what I'm looking for - I like to tinker, but once set up, I want the thing to be a "press a button on the remote and the thing just works" kinda thing...is that the case once you're up and running?

 

For the most part yes.  I am trying to use my Harmony remote with the JetWay, which takes some doing as no one had added it to the the Logitech database.  There are some menus that I can't get to that I would like to because some key mappings are not set up.  All major and needed buttons are working, except for the STOP button on the remote.  Once that is fixed I would consider it ready for prime time.

 

The custom key mapping thing is not something that has to be done, but it is something that I want to do... eventually.

 

 

Not at all.  One of the first things everyone asks when they see my setup.  Not the cool unRAID server, not the Syno NAS, or how do you do that...it is "why do jpg show up under video?

 

Seems like such a simple filter/programming fix.

 

 

you would think........

 

 

And then I remember the DLNA limitation and not showing covers.  My folder.jpg show up from my unRAID because I'm using SMB shares, if I use the Synology media server. No folder coverart.

 

Sorry I'm confused, is the coverart showing on your PS3 folders? or just for the files within the folders? I use smb shares too. If so can you let me know your jpg settings, I've tried every combo and nothing works for me.

 

cheers